Despite being the lowest-seeded team in the Lexington Regional, Ohio played like it expected to win against top-seeded Kentucky to the brink of a game one upset on Friday.
The Bobcats hung with the Wildcats throughout the game, but never found a way to put a run on the board. On the flipside, sophomore pitcher Savannah Jo Dorsey threw another solid game in the circle for Ohio. The difference was that Kentucky took advantage of two Bobcat mistakes to claim a 2-0 victory.
Ohio’s first mistake came in the second inning when Dorsey left a pitch over the middle of the plate. Kentucky first baseman Lauren Cumbess jumped on it and sent a shot over the right field fence to give the Wildcats their first run.
Dorsey showed nerves of steel as she didn’t allow the home run to phase the groove she has been in since the beginning of the Mid-American Conference Tournament. But two innings later, she found herself in a bases-loaded one out jam and Kentucky (45-15) looked poised to break the game open. However, Dorsey forced two ground balls to escape the inning unscathed.
Kentucky coach Rachel Lawson was the first to Dorsey high marks on her performance.
“She climbs the ladder really well; she has a great rise ball and when you play at night under the lights that always gives hitters a fit,” Lawson said. “I think the perfect game that she threw in her conference tournament — after seeing her tonight for the first time live — it must have been legitimate. She’s outstanding and as good as any pitcher we have seen all year.”
Unfortunately for the Bobcats, Dorsey was not able to carry her team to victory after doing so time and time again in the MAC Tournament and Ohio couldn’t find ways to push any runs across against the Wildcats’ ace Kelsey Nunley.
The Bobcats (32-25) were never able to string the hits together as they couldn’t get their bats around on Nunley. She pitched almost exclusively on the inside corner jamming the Bobcat hitters. They looked to threaten the No. 14-seed Wildcats a few times, but came up empty. The most promising came in the final frame as Ohio had runners on the corners with two outs, but was unable to cash in as senior center fielder Alyssa Wolfe popped up to third to end the game.
“We just cut ourselves an inning and a half short there where there were some opportunities offensively where we could have applied some more pressure if we had more attack,” Ohio coach Jodi Hermanek said.
Kentucky was able to add to its lead in the sixth when Emily Gaines’ double down the right field line led off the inning. Ohio freshman catcher Madison Claytor then attempted to pick the runner off at second, but a miss communication between Claytor and sophomore shortstop Amanda Dalton allowed the pinch runner Maisie Steed to advance to third. Dorsey once again faced Lauren Cumbess who four innings prior put the Wildcats on the board. Cumbess came through again for her team hitting a sac fly to right to score a key insurance run for Kentucky.
Despite not being on that stage in nearly two decades, the Bobcats handled themselves well. They seemed to embrace the moment that they were in. They were unflappable all game long and showed great maturity for a young team giving the Wildcats all they could handle.
“Going into it it’s very easy to stay very relaxed because the whole team’s mentality is to just play within ourselves and it doesn’t matter really who’s in the other dugout. It’s a great platform to be at, it’s a great opportunity especially since it has been awhile, but we played the same as if we were playing on our home field.”
With the loss to Kentucky, Ohio falls into the loser’s bracket of the regional. It will face DePaul (41-10) in the second game tomorrow after the Blue Demons fell to James Madison 6-1 in their first game.
DePaul will look to bounce back from a poor performance at both the plate and in the circle as the Dukes (45-13) had their number all game long. Hermanek believes that the Blue Demons are a team the Bobcats can do well against.
“I saw a pitcher who is going to work down in the zone compared to what we just saw today,” Hermanek said. “And I saw hitters that I think that Savvy is going to be effective against. We need to come out and play our game and we need to be aggressive with our game.”
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